Called yesterday and they want $1300.00 to soda blast my tub. That to me

seems high. I know it was many years ago but we paid $200.00 for a 55 chevy.

Could you let me know what you have paid lately. Thanks.

I don't know what it costs to blast a chassis but I am getting mine dip striped and it will cost $1600. That will remove all the paint, seam sealer, etc. Then it will be dipped to remove all the rust. The only down side is the heater hose that runs through the chassis is destroyed and cannot be replaced (or removed) without removing the outer frame member, not a problem for me because I will be using an oil cooler for my heat setup.

First question...where in the NE are you doing this..I searched...

Second...take a sawzall, cut along the top of the long, and two slits down, one in front and one behind the heater tube..take it out.
dont remove spot welds, just cut it close to that top seam, and cut on either side of the pipe, fornt and back..fold down the piece of long, and take out the tube...then send it to the guy just like that...dont close it up till you get it back...

Its an easy fix, plus you get the added benefit of seeing inside after its done, and treating the area with POR or whatever you choose...

Rich

will the first dip strip the under coating?

A place called Quick Srip in Allentown, PA will be doing the striping for me. I was told the procces will remove everything that is not steel including the ID tags that are made of aluminum.

I just dug out the invoice for my strip-job. It was 4 years ago, however. I went to a place called RediStrip, in Columbus Ohio. Though I live north of Boston, it wasn't a bad trip... I understand there is (or was) a RediStrip franchise in Pennsylvania somewhere as well. I found them through an ad in Hemmings.

I hemmed and hawwed, and finally decided NOT to strip the entire chassis. When you dip the whole car, it takes the coating off places that you'll never get to to recoat, and you may be asking for rust later on, even it you didn't have it before.

So, I took my two trunk lids, my engine lid, both doors (completely disassembled), my headlight covers, and headlight blinds in the back of my Saab 900, and drove off to Columbus. Once you get these parts off, there isn't that much exterior metal to hand sand- basically just the four fenders. Of course, I was lucky that I had a 914 with no rust and sound undercoating.


Total cost- $330 plus tax as follows-
front trunk- $100
rear trunk- $75
2 doors @ $50 each- $100 total
engine access panel (their terminology)- $35
4 misc panels (the headlight stuff)- $20

At the last minute, I decided to have them blast the two trunks, instead of dipping them, for the same reason I didn't do the body. I didn't want to remove the coatings (including the old Ziebart) from the channels where I could never do as good a job recoating. They blasted with a plastic media of some sort.

The parts came out AMAZING!!! When I drove back, I went immediately to my body shop in Acton, Mass, to get them primed as soon as possible. My body guy couldn't believe it.... He kept asking- "So tell me again how it is that this guy in Ohio happenned to have two brand new doors that fit your car."

Take a look at the close up of the door- the only rust was along the weatherstrip channel. You can see where it WAS- all gone now!

They are boiled in a hot caustic solution for as long as necessary- mine were there 3 weeks- and then washed and then dipped in a wax solution to protect from surface rust. The wax solution provides minimal protection for very short time, but at least it washes off easily when the parts are prepped for painting.

RediStrip does complete cars also. They had a complete 1964 Mustang in the vat boiling away, and they were completely blasting a 1963 Dodge Dart as well. To each his own.

Pictures-
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I just had mine media blasted. Inside and out, doors ect and everything sealed so it didn't rust while I worked on problem areas and it cost me $1200. I would have saved a couple hundred by not having the primer, but it was worth it to me to have it done the same day it was stripped. By the way they called so I could see the bare metal before it was sprayed.

I have had two different 914's chemically dipped to remove paint, body caulk and rust!! Son Duane had one done as well. Johns car was not rusty enough to warrant the expense.

And it works. 20 years ago also at redistrip in Cinci at a cost of about $1000 and 2 years ago in a west Chicago suburb at a cost of $1600.

The job done 20 years ago is still as rust free as a new car, better than that, it still reveals clean metal under any scratch in the paint, and the other car is still "under construction". Even the insides of the longs are as clean as you can imagine. You can use an undercoating "wand" to get into them and spray them good.

The hell with the heater in an old restored car, as I would only drive it in nice weather anyway, and if I want a rust free tub to fix and that I know I do not have to worry about, I would do it again.